Hiding under all these perfectly tender red potatoes and carrots are a couple of chicken thighs. I promise.

This recipe is a happy accident.

I meant to make this in the slow cooker. Except I didn’t get it started in time. I hadn’t written it onto my daily planner. And I forgot to set the slow cooker on the counter the night before. And it wasn’t until 2:30 pm that I figured out my error.

But thankfully there was still plenty of time to get it made…just not in the slow cooker. The Dutch oven was the only option.

Braise the chicken thighs, while cutting up the potatoes and carrots…then let it slow cook on the stovetop.

(This would work well with boneless chicken thighs. If you prefer to use chicken breast, you might want to add a little more water, as the chicken breasts won’t release as many juices as they cook.)

Directions

Add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar to a large Dutch oven. Turn on the heat and then brown the chicken on both sides. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper.

Add the potatoes, carrots, onion and diced tomatoes over top of the chicken thighs. Pour about 1 cup of water over top. Then sprinkle the Italian seasoning plus a little more salt and pepper over the top.

Add a few drizzles of olive oil over the top. Bring the liquid to bubbling, then reduce heat to medium low and cover tightly.

Let cook for 1 hour to 2 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and potatoes and carrots are fork tender.

Serve Italian Chicken with Potatoes out of the stovetop, as is. No side dish necessary!

I would brown it first since the crockpot doesn’t “brown” the chicken so I would just sear the skin to give it the browned look before throwing it in the crockpot. That’s just me. I don’t like the light coloured chicken that looks so “uncooked”

I loved this and my hubby gobbled this up!!! Had it a few Sundays ago. makes a great Sunday Dinner. Might try the crockpot next time and I think I will pass on browing the chicken. Never sear my chicken in prep for crockpot only the beef dinners. TY

Delicious recipe. I modified by adding more veggies – celery, sweet potatoes, yellow pepper; spices – three cloves of garlic, three teaspoons of Italian seasoning, one teaspoon of salt; tomato paste, hatch chili vinegar (instead of balsamic), chicken broth instead of water (which I used to deglaze the pan after browning chicken), threw it all into the slow cooker and stirred then cooked for two hours on high and three on low and it was amazing!

I should also note that I browned the chicken, removed from oil then sauted onions for five minutes, added garlic for one minute and then the rest of the veggies for five minutes, tossing to coat with the oil. After removing veggies, I deglazed pan with the broth and added everything to the slow cooker pot.

The chicken broke up on its own so it made a sweet-savory, hearty stew. I would definitely make again!